Maddie had coached Zach on what to say in case anybody asked. He went into his story. “Gamma woke up with chest pains. I guess she must have known she was having a heart attack. She couldn’t walk so she grabbed her car keys and pressed the panic button to wake somebody up.”
“Thank goodness Ashley had the presence of mind to call for an ambulance.”
Zach had to stop and think for a minute. Ashley was the name Hannah used around outsiders. “Yeah, that’s what she did. After taking one look at Gamma, she saw what was happening and called for an ambulance. Then she... uh... rode to the hospital with her.”
“What hospital is Faye at? I’d like to visit her when she’s feeling better.”
Zach realized that whatever he told Mrs. Martin would be telegraphed around the subdivision in a matter of minutes. “She’s at a private hospital. No visitors allowed except for family. Please don’t worry.” He swallowed hard. “She’s doing fine. I just came to pick up a few things that she’ll need.”
“Poor Ashley,” Mrs. Martin continued. “She can’t stay here all alone with your grandmother away.”
The teenager paused. Maddie’s coaching hadn’t covered this particular question. He thought fast. “She won’t be. My folks offered to look after her until Gamma gets back on her feet.”
“Well, if nobody’s staying in the house for a while you should probably clean out the refrigerator,” the neighbor advised. “You don’t want food spoiling, do you?”
That issue had already been anticipated. An Arkana sweeper team would swing by to secure the place after he was gone. To Mrs. Martin, Zach replied, “We have some family friends who are going to come over later and straighten the place out since we don’t know how long she’ll be gone.”
“It’s nice that you all pull together to help out such a sweet old lady.”
Zach could feel tears forming in his eyes. He looked away. “Yeah, we all do our part. I’m sorry, Mrs. Martin, but I really have to be going.”
“Oh, of course.” She gave his shoulder a sympathetic pat. “You take care and give my best wishes to your grandmother for a speedy recovery.”
“Thank you. I’ll do that,” he murmured as he ducked his head and hurried inside.
The parlor seemed eerily quiet. He’d never entered that room in the past year without feeling elated at the prospect of seeing Hannah. Now she was gone. Just like that. He didn’t want to think about how scared she was. He shoved away darker thoughts that hinted she might not even be alive at all. Instead, he focused on the task at hand. He wanted to know how somebody had gotten inside. Scanning the front of the house, he couldn’t see anything out of place.
Fortunately, the Arkana paramedics had sidestepped a police investigation that morning with the story of Faye’s heart attack. The authorities never came inside to investigate which made Zach the first person to inspect the crime scene. Once he walked into the kitchen, he immediately noticed that a panel of glass in the back door had been broken. That meant the intruder had come in through the garden. The tyro walked out into the yard. The ground was still too hard to show footprints though it looked as if one of the withered flower beds by the fence had been trampled. He guessed that whoever abducted Hannah had exited that way. His eyes narrowed as he considered the escape route. The privacy fence was six feet high. Even if Hannah had been drugged, it was hard to imagine somebody scaling that fence with a girl slung over his shoulder. Zach concluded that more than one person was involved in the abduction.
He walked back inside the house, making a mental note to have Maddie tell the sweepers to repair the window. Unplugging the monitor from Hannah’s PC, the tyro carried the computer out to his car. There was no telling if the hard drive might offer a clue about the Arkana, so he figured he’d better take it. Then he found Faye’s laptop and carried that out as well. The sweepers would go through all her papers to remove anything incriminating. Zach’s only other task was to find his Gamma’s cell phone. He knew she’d called Maddie from upstairs. He ran up to her bedroom but didn’t see it. Then he rifled through the dresser drawers and found it under a pile of handkerchiefs. Pocketing the phone, he was on the point of leaving when he paused and turned his head.
For no good reason, he walked to Hannah’s room and stood in the doorway for a moment. The air smelled like the cologne she favored. It reminded him of lilies. Was it lily-of-the-valley? He hadn’t been paying attention when she told him what it was. In the middle of her bed, propped against the pillows, was the plush stuffed cat he’d given her long ago. It reminded her of her pet kitten—shot on the crazy preacher’s orders. She’d started to cry when she first saw the fake feline. He hadn’t realized she still had it, much less valued it enough to keep it near her when she slept.
His eyes traveled to her closet. A hanger was hooked over the top of the door displaying a fancy pink dress. He ran his fingers across the soft fabric. She’d told him about the outfit, but he hadn’t seen it before. She said it was supposed to be a surprise, that he’d see it on prom night. Every time she mentioned this dress her eyes would light up. She was so excited to be going to a formal dance. And now...
He felt himself choking up. Fleeing the room, he ran back downstairs, slammed the door, and jumped into his car. There
